Aletheia's

I read the whole commentary... A friend recommended A Madness of Angels last year and even lent it to me. But after a few chapters I abandoned it. There was, for me, no character to empathise with and so I didn't care what happened. Maybe I should try again some time.

I agree about Harris and quite a few proponents of the genre, but other writers have used magic in urban fantasy quite differently. I like Seanan McGuire, especially the October Daye series, where the human and fae realms exist side by side and only a few half-fae and even fewer really powerful fae try to function in both. And I like Tanya Huff's visions of magic in cities (not her vampire books which are quite different) and how it's always just beyond normal sight and hearing or depends on the angle of view. Both McGuire and Huff give me central characters to follow. So does Kelley Armstrong, who shows us how supernatural characters might feel when forced to live in two worlds at once. I don't think any of these (especially Armstrong)are likely to last in the canons of great literature but they have at least given me a lot of pleasure.

I love Pratchett but again, he provides intense characters who struggle with universal situations.

I am not fond of stories where the ultimate hero is the place rather than the people - I know Louis de Berniere's South American trilogy and Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude are regarded as 'great' literature, but both authors have written other books that have appealed to me much more.

I admire world building, but it is not enough on its own, whether it is the Discworld or modern London. You will probably tell me that Griffin's characters are wonderful but if so they hadn't revealed their true natures in the first fifty pages. And that's something I need.